Boston Celtics Bigs Step Up Against Detroit Pistons

Boston Celtics’ bigs carry them to a victory over the Detroit Pistons

The last time the Boston Celtics played the Detroit Pistons, it felt like their size advantage was going to be a lot for them to overcome. The Celtics were not able to get good enough contributions from their versatile bigs, and their traditional one was not able to hold his own.

In their second meeting of the season, the Celtics made the adjustments, and locked down the Pistons as well as they have locked down any team this season. The Celtics did not need any crazy scoring in this one. They were balance on offense, and their defense made sure that the Pistons could not get any advantage.

We have seen Andre Drummond put up some monstrous performances against the Celtics, and he was neutralized in this one. He still got his 15 boards, but six points on 1-5 shooting is not going to cut it against the Celtics.

Aron Baynes did his job as well as anyone could have asked, bringing in13 rebounds of his own. The star of the game, however, was Al Horford, with a great bounce back performance. On top of the fact that he was a part of shutting down Drummond, preventing him from blowing up the game, he had his way on offense, and got everyone involved.

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The Celtics found some ball movement and they found their passing, and all of that is instigated by Horford, whose 18 points and six assists were both the top on the team. Horford got a clear advantage in this one, and Baynes was able to hold the rest down. When the Celtics get that interior advantage against the Pistons, it is going to be almost impossible for the Pistons to win.

The rebounding battle was close, but collecting four more than the Pistons is all they need to do. The Pistons are depending on that interior advantage when they play the Celtics, and Boston does themselves a massive favor when the front court picks up the slack like that.

The Celtics certainly could have been better on offense. No one really separated themselves with a great scoring performance, but the Celtics found a way to make this an easier win, and that is going to be vital in holding onto home court advantage in the East.

The Celtics know they can go to Kyrie Irving and look for him to create all the offense they need. When they are at their best, however, is when they do not need Irving to carry that load. They are at their best when everything is functioning well, and nobody is better at instigating that than Horford is on this team.

If Horford is able to have this kind of versatility, and Baynes is able to hold his own on the boards, then teams will not be able to attack the Celtics with their size. Of course, we still cannot trust for sure that the Celtics will get that much from Baynes and Horford every time, but this was a glimpse into the potential of what the Celtics can do when small ball is not a good option.

We have seen on numerous occasions how much damage the Celtics can do with their young versatile and underside bigs off the bench. If teams try to play that game with the Celtics, they often suffer. The Pistons have enough size to force the Celtics away from that kind of game, putting all the pressure on Horford and Baynes.

Next: Boston Celtics Need Balance on Offense

If the Celtics can have this kind of confidence with their traditional size, then you can add that to a long list of different ways this team is going to be able to win. Baynes’ role has been all over the place, and missing Marcus Morris may have also been a factor, but if the Celtics can begin to depend on this kind of performance when facing this kind of size, it is going to be impossible to find an advantage against this team.

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